Câmpulung (also spelled Cîmpulung, , , , or Câmpulung Muscel) is a city in Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. It is attested on the Fra Mauro map from 1450 as Campo longo. It is situated among the outlying hills of the Southern Carpathians, at the head of a long well-wooded glen traversed by the river Târgului, a tributary of the river Argeș.
History
thumb|Paol House (Casa Paol) and Grădina Pieței (Garden Square) in 1906
thumb|A Câmpulung street in 1890, by [[Theodor Aman.]]
alt=Old coat of arms of Campulung during the interwar period.|thumb|Coat of arms of Câmpulung during the [[interwar period.]]
Near Câmpulung are the remains of Jidava (or Jidova) Roman fort built around 190–211 AD on the frontier of the empire, the Limes Transalutanus; and just next to it, vestiges of a Roman colony, variously identified with Romula, Stepenium, and Ulpia Traiana. Now called Grădiștea (meaning place of a fortress in Romanian) or Jidovi. the full text being Hic sepultus est comes Laurencius de Longo-Campo, pie memorie, Anno Domini MCCC ("Here is buried count Laurentius of Longus-Campus, in pious memory, Anno Domini 1300"). Laurentius was most likely the person coordinating the colonization process.
The oldest known written document in Old Romanian was dated back to 1521 (Neacșu's letter). The letter was written to warn the city of Brașov of an impending Ottoman attack. The letter, written in Old Romanian, names the city in the introductory part written in Old Church Slavonic as Dlăgopole — Длъгополь (with the same meaning — "a long field").
Early Modern Ages
When the printing press started to get popular in Europe, Matei Basarab managed to bring a printing press in Câmpulung in 1635 where Orthodox books would be printed and would be sent all over the Balkan peninsula for Orthodox people. This did not last long and in 1650 there weren't records of books being printed after that.
During the reign of Șerban Cantacuzino (1678–1688), pressure was exerted to change the Catholic judges of Câmpulung to Eastern Orthodox.
Originally, the Romanians of the town did not have the same rights as the German colonists, but by the 15th century, the two communities were already merged, as shown by the new Romanian churches built near the Catholic areas and by the fact that some of the elected județs were Romanians. Another community in the town were the Bogomil Bulgarians, who settled in the Șchei neighbourhood (Șchei being an old Romanian word referring to Slavic people). Outside the town, in the south-west, on the hill currently named Câmpul mișeilor ("Field of the cripple") was a leper colony, which had its own church and mill.